Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla heads to New York as India set to assume UNSC Presidency

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New Delhi: As India is set to assume the presidency of the United Nations Security Council next month, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla will be visiting New York for consultations on Wednesday (July 14).

India is a non-permanent member of the UNSC for a period of 2 years starting January 1, 2021, and will be chairing the body in August. India will also chair the body in December 2022.

Each of the 15 members of the UNSC gets to be the President of the body for a period of one month. The president decides the agenda for the month, coordinates important meetings and other related issues, and is an influential position.

India's envoy to UN TS Tirumurti will be representing India at the council. Previously, India has been president of the body in June 1950, September 1967, December 1972, October 1977, February 1985, October 1991, December 1992, August 2011 and November 2012.

As the president of the UNSC, India will have a number of signature events including one on UN peacekeeping. India is expected to launch a mobile tech platform ‘UNITE AWARE’ during its presidency for UN peacekeepers.

India's deputy permanent representative K Nagaraj Naidu in May said, “Use of field-focused, reliable and cost-effective new technologies in peacekeeping operations that are driven by practical needs of end-users on the ground is the need of the hour", adding, " I am happy to inform the Council that India in partnership with UNDPKO Department of Operational Support has been working towards the development of mobile tech platform – UNITE AWARE – that helps increase situational awareness and provides terrain-related information to peacekeepers.”

India takes the chair at a time when the COVID-19 crisis has been the top concern of the international community. Other than that, counter-terror will be one of the key areas for New Delhi when it takes the presidency of the high table.